“Don’t you know me at all?” Seven asked, disappointed. “Never mind. At this point I suppose it doesn’t matter. You’re back in the good old times you were always dreaming about. Doesn’t that make you at all happy?”

“This is only a big dream!” Proteus shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Well, make it a quieter one and stop yelling,” Seven said. “I’ve lots to explain to you. Come with me.” Then he called to Ma-ah and Lydia. The Speakers retreated so that they seemed to be only shadows cast by the late moon.

“Proteus, what time do you live in?” Seven asked.

“What do you mean? It’s 2254,” Proteus stammered, as Lydia and Ma-ah walked over beside Seven.

“And who are the Tellers?”

“Why, they’re … archeologists of a sort, living on the ruins of an ancient civilization—”

“Oh! This one!” Ma-ah cried. “The Tellers are … the—”

“He’s got to find out for himself,” Seven said quickly. “But you’re doing very well; you’re picking up part of my knowledge.”

Despite herself, Lydia joined in. She was growing more excited. Even Lawrence’s absence seemed unimportant in the face of what was happening, or seemed to be happening. “And my poems?” she asked. “They came from here. Did I get them from Ma-ah?” Her mind was working with great clarity. She turned to Ma-ah, who now seemed like an old dear friend, except that now she felt too young to have felt that way about anyone.

“In some way. I’m not sure,” Ma-ah said, smiling back.

“You were aware of the poems through Ma-ah,” Seven said.

“I hate to admit it, but this is spooky,” Proteus said to Ma-ah. “If I’m thinking straight at all, then you and I live in the same place, with me in the future and you in the past—”

“Well, you’re not thinking straight,” Ma-ah retorted. “I don’t live in the past. What do you mean?” she said, staring at Proteus.

Sumpter looked, amazed, at Seven. Indicating Proteus, he said: “The twin … Ma-ah’s twin … in our records—”

“I suppose it isn’t important, but I wish Lawrence would come,” Lydia said, to no one in particular. Ma-ah took Lydia’s arm quickly and said, “I’m sure he’ll get here. But there’s something I want to show you first. Look at that cliff wall. That’s the way those poems of yours look in the language of the Speakers. See those symbols? And the drawings?”

Oversoul Seven was more than delighted with Ma-ah’s concern over Lydia. He nodded at her vigorously, then said to Lydia, “If you’d been interested in art rather than poetry, you might have tuned into the drawings instead, as Josef did.”

“Who’s Josef?” they all asked.